We have been anchored out at Key West for several days now. It’s an interesting place. The kids have culture shock. It seems to be a very liberal minded place. What freaked them out the most was the guy they saw that had eyebrows tattooed on –rather large, pirate-like eyebrows. There are a lot of people here that seem to wish they were pirates. There are also lots of establishments with bad words in their names–which isn’t something the kids are used to seeing. Most of their experiences are limited to Victoria, Tx (a fairly conservative, family town), and OKC (the buckle of the Bible belt). John says that Key West attracts so many “interesting” people because it’s the end of the road. He said they keep moving down the road looking for a place to fit in, and they all end up here because there is no more road.

There are lots of VERY cool boats here.

Read the rest of this entry »

Well we did it! We managed to hang around the US until the end of the year. This is not what we had in mind. But everything takes a little longer on a boat. So in order to help maintain our sanity we are going to do a brief recap of our activities aboard since September. We have come a long way, even though we haven’t gone very far. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, we have been living on a boat for 3 full months now, and we haven’t gone anywhere. Warning: this may turn into a gripe session–but it won’t last long, maybe…

I never dreamed we would still be in US waters in December! I definitely never planned on being cold. Even in Galveston it’s cold. Last night was 38, and today’s high was 64. We’re all running out of cold weather clothing. We didn’t pack but a couple of pairs of jeans, and a couple of sweatshirts each. The kids didn’t bring any coats, either. Read the rest of this entry »

HOWDY! Well, it’s been a while since my last post. Let me tell you why. We are in the middle of nowhere with unreliable internet (good thing it’s free, huh) and poor cell phone coverage. Our phones only work if we go up on deck. The internet is VERY slow and usually totally unavailable. So, I’ll type this up and see if I can get it to go through. Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry all you Okies…but it’s a family tradition: once we cross over a border into Texas we all break out into song…the state song.

We are in Palacios, Tx. We arrived here Tuesday night which means our trip from Pensacola took 2 weeks. That’s not so bad. We were greeted by our friend Phil who was waiting for us at the dock. We are just an hour from Victoria (our former home), so we are having lots of visitors…which we LOVE. It’s been so awesome seeing everyone and getting caught up on everyone’s lives.

We met a guy here that has sailed around the world. He now works on boats around the marina. He is repainting a boat a few slips away and hired the boys to pull up tape. They were pretty excited to have a job. Kimi was jealous that she didn’t have a job, so she decided to sew the “B” back onto our sail cover (The “B” in Cannibal was coming off). She did a great job.

I’m excited to get my new old sewing machine and my new computer. Both are due in any day now.

Perhaps John will post soon about our “adventure” in Galveston. (we ran aground and had to have a tug boat pull us off….shhhh). While we were in Galveston we had a visit from my brother & his family. We had such a great time. We also looked up some friends that moved there from OKC and got to see them, too. It’s been awesome.

We had planned on hanging out in Galveston for several days anchored out in Offett’s Bayou. We wanted to go to Moody Gardens and play a little. Then our dinghy motor broke. Naturally, there wasn’t anyone in Galveston that worked on outboards…the closest place was Hitchcock! Hard to believe a huge place like Galveston didn’t have anyone who fixed outboards. Oh well. John discovered the parts he needs to fix it and can order them.

We finally closed on the house for real! We closed on the 3rd, but won’t get the check til Monday. Someone on this boat must have prayed for patience….(it weren’t me).

Hopefully, while we’re here we can take the boat offshore for some real ocean sailing experience. We will be here til hurricane season ends (nov 1), then it’s off to exotic places: South America, Mexico, Bahamas, Carribean, Cuba…. The world is our oyster.

If you’re in the neighborhood, drop by for a visit! We really enjoying reconnecting with people we haven’t seen in a while.  So till next post: Adios amigos!

If you haven’t said it, you’ve probably thought it. So have we! What was supposed to have been a 4-5 day trip has turned into almost 2 weeks! There have been some delays on selling the house. We were supposed to have closed on the 10th. That will probably end up being more like the 15th. Please pray that everything that needs to happen, happens quickly. The boat payment is coming up…and another house payment…and we’re unemployed…I think that about says it. So, unless there are further delays, we plan to leave OKC on the 11th.

The house is empty, which was the 2nd goal of our trip back, although we still have to find a home for a table saw, a sewing cabinet, and an antique piano. We had an impromptu garage sale and made quite a chunk from “donations.” We didn’t have time to price things and almost blew off the garage sale. We sent email to staff only, but we ended up having people stop by from another garage sale in the area. So we stuck a donations jar out and told people what we were doing and asked them to just pay us what they felt like it was worth to them. (A God idea—He’s so smart!). We gave the rest to Salvation Army and Goodwill.

It’s ironic, we pay money for stuff…then practically have to pay to get rid of it!  I never dreamed it would be so much work to simplify my life! We own a house and a boat, yet we’re not sleeping in either.

Our cars both have new homes and owners. We have all of our worldly possesions either on the boat or in an attic.  I’m learning how little you really need to be happy.  I may eat those words in a few months, but at least for now it’s very freeing to be unencumbered with stuff.

What’s next? As soon as we can get our house sold for real, we will get back “home” afloat and head to Texas. We plan to go to Houston, or near it, so John can renew his Coast Guard license. We also have to kill time until Hurricane season is over (Nov 1st). We are very limited to where we can travel until then. After that, it’s south for the winter: The Keys, Bahamas, Caribbean Islands, Cuba, South America, Central America, Mexico, Cayman Islands, The Mediterranean… hopefully we can see most of these in a year!